Training Log Archive: jennycas

Because I deserve it :)
Will have to remind myself soon that cake and chocolate are 'sometimes foods'...but the leftover wedding cake is all gone now (apart from the fruitcake layer which we are keeping for some particular future occasion; don't ask me - I'm not the one who eats fruitcake)!

Arrows run from F&T's before Arrows meeting. Magpie Gully and Coro Station.

An impressive turnout of Arrows & associates at Bridgewater this morning; anyone would think they were all in town for some event :)

We headed out along the Heysen Trail towards Woodhouse with Vanessa, Simon, Bridget, Andrew, Tracy, Susanne, Blair, Reuben, Zara, Bruce, Lauren, Tyson, Robin, John. I think that's all! The boys had cleverly arranged leaving a couple of cars at the summit so most of the one-wayers continued along Sprigg Rd from the bottom of the steepness while the rest of us went UP the Heysen Trail. I found a geocache near the top; there was a hollow tree on a track bend which looked to me like a perfect hiding place and so it turned out to be!

Didn't hurry to leave the summit, having said goodbye to Tracy here, and 7 of us (Bruce, Blair, Simon, Zara, Vanessa, Lauren & myself) headed back down through the botanic gardens, since the gates were open. I veered a bit far left of the lakes, and hit the carpark lower than we had arranged to meet. When I got to the right spot only Simon was there, so the others must have had more fun than I did.

Legs had been ok although tired until now but my knee started to twinge on the long bitumen descent past Woodhouse, so I took the last bit through Mt George pretty easy. It was a lovely scenic run though, and great that we had so many takers today.

Waited for the (brief) rain to start, then went for a late-evening run, but it turned into a steam-bath fairly shortly thereafter. Never mind the weather, I guess what everyone wants to know about is THE WEDDING!

Yeah, it was good. Really good. I'd possibly even consider using such a cliche as "a perfect day". For starters there were no tents to put up or toilet holes to dig...and I managed not to get sunburnt and my feet don't hurt too much from standing in heels all day.

And Geoff/George scrubs up all right in a suit. I don't have any photos yet (hard to take them when you're in them) but I'm sure they have already been popping up on people's Facebook pages across most of the known world, I mean the orienteering community.

Plus it was just a really fun day. Good weather, food and company, not to mention Adrian's Maze-O and Vanessa playing cello. We are so lucky to have so many valued friends who could come to share all this with us.

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, the dress was green :)

C • Picture! 7

Getting bad at this sleeping business, being rather tightly-wound about something, but at least I am not actually bouncing off the walls just yet. Swam up & down with Susanne, feeling just a touch vague. I thought she was counting laps, so wasn't too fussed when I lost count, but seem to have gone back & forth once more than I had meant to.

C • Long run 2

C • Best wishes 8

Despite the warm night and my current state of tiredness, this went fairly well apart from the sweat dripping into my eyes. There were a few good options for leaving out 5 of 20 controls but the ones on the beach were first to go. Started heading SE so the controls E of the start were next to go, then by the time I had met up with Susanne who had gone E first and was one control up on me, I had decided to drop the one in the ornamental lake on Delfin Island even though that looked like the most interesting control site on the whole map. Sus dropped 2 others on the island, we crossed the footbridge about the same time then got the northern controls in the same order but I was drawing away very gradually, surprised at how much better I felt running than I have on other Friday nights!

You can't have everything, and I certainly didn't have a good night's sleep, but a scenic run on a perfect morning would improve even the weariest person's mood. Joined the SARRC mob for the traditional Australia day run from Brighton to Hallett Cove via the stairs (plus the Arrows' usual loop around the Sugarloaf and Amphitheatre in the conservation park). Couldn't have run fast if I tried, so took it easy, admired the view, let myself walk a few stairs if necessary, and was rewarded by uncomplaining hamstring. It was great to see running friends who I don't often get to catch up with now that the trail runs mostly clash with orienteering races.

As mornings in the valley go, this was pretty nice. Could feel the warmth as I came back to the suburbs though. Braked too hard cornering on to the footbridge and collected the railing with my shoulder - hope that doesn't bruise before Saturday!

C • Tight turn 2

More enjoyable and less dusty than the gardening I'd been doing for most of the day. Equally warm, although the sun was setting as I reached the park and there was just enough light left to see the last of the singletracks before I hit the suburbs again.

Bridgewater to Mylor via the Heysen Trail and main rd, back up Aldgate Valley Rd, with Simon, John, Tyson, Aislinn, Lauren, Zara(Callum). Was still reasonably cool and I felt better running than I have for the last week (Two Bays included; of course this was only half the time/distance) but spent too long in a hot car afterwards driving around the hills and then to the farm with parents, so the afternoon wasn't brilliant.

Shepherds Hill, Eden Hills, Bellevue Heights, Flinders Uni. Took it easy, not thinking about how slow this was. Still, the fresh breezy (sometimes downright gusty) morning was pleasant and hamstring didn't become troublesome until the start of the descent through the uni.

Mmm waffles...didn't know Tip Top makes them but there were good bakery smells this morning. Also nice & cool & cloudy - perfect for bushwalking in Tasmania. Unfortunately, I had to go to work instead.

Started in a downhill direction from the start, hoping that I'd have warmed up a bit by the time it came to going uphill again, but no such luck. Legs were dead and tight on even the slightest incline; am starting to verify the theory that swimming is bad for hamstrings. Saw Kate & baby at the event, not to mention a sighting of a Jymbo.

Wow, so fatigued! Everyone turned out for Tyson's Birthday Run, which turned into a sort of Simon Says, along quite a few singletracks we don't normally take. Then Simon said "We're going up the big hill" and I said "I'm going home instead". You reckon that 3 meetings in 3 nights may have caught up with me?

Tired legs today, struggled up the hill, but the view from the ridgeline out over Glenelg and the ocean was adequate reward. Made it home from the park in 11:35 which was a surprise.

Came home from OSA management meeting at 8:30pm, hungry but needed a run. Saw a beautiful pink sunset rainbow :) Hip better, hamstring worse. Hello Mr Spiky Peanut (ow ow ow).

Legs felt ok immediately after the run yesterday but when I woke up this morning I pretty much couldn't walk because right hip was so bad (accelerator side, and I never managed to get the seat adjusted right in our hire car).

Anyway, was walking less like Lurch by the end of the day so went for a short run over to the park, stretched lots, ran back, sweated lots, thought about rolling on the spiky peanut but was saved from that agony by having to go to Wallaringa meeting.

Just a bit flat, really. Made it up the Arthurs Seat hill okay, even marginally faster for the first 4km than last year, got caught in a train of people who were more tentative than I wanted to be on the singletrack around the hillside so couldn't stride out much, was completely empty (and rather dry) by the bottom of the big hill at about 7km, would have been perfectly happy to just sit down and go to sleep by the roadside. Made myself eat a nutrigrain bar through 7-9 and keep plodding along the farm roads as everyone I'd overtaken on the descent passed me again, also people from the 2nd wave start (Jase was powering along). I took nearly 25 min for 8-12, but kept reminding myself that the next 15km would be way better than the first 12, looking forward to getting into Greens Bush. Which really is nice: lots of little ups & downs & boardwalks & footbridges among stringybarks & yakkas. Only problem was that I'd often catch people on the downhill, overtake them just at the bridge, then get passed on the climb out of the creek - everyone must have thought I was so rude! Also couldn't easily drink on the run with the bottles I had and needed to stop to scull each time I got thirsty - very lucky that it was a cool cloudy morning.

Started leapfrogging a (possibly English or maybe Kiwi) girl from about 16km, and continued to do so until the very end. The 27km marker was a bit early and although I figured I could hold her off for 300m no worries, it turned out to be a bit further than that and so she took the finish sprint.

Ended up a couple min slower than last year. Not happy with that but given that I died at about 8km, was satisfied with the resurrection - and also after last week's run had thought I could even be as slow as 2:45. So it was okay. Felt like a bit of a fraud afterwards having driven back to Dromana and then seeing the 56km runners finishing, but no way I could even have contemplated the return run!

4km splits - assuming the markers were in the same place as last year)

2012 2011
26:16 26:33
21:03 19:24
24:50 30:14 (5km to 13)
22:29 16:22 (3km to 16)
21:57 21:05
23:35 23:18
19:57 21:13 (3.3km)
-------- ---------
2:40:08 2:38:13

C • Nice one. 5

C • taper 2

Event: Super Long World Champs IV
 

Depends on your definition...we had a 6am flight to Melbourne, breakfast with Ross & Sue, coffee with Kristin, lunch with Vanessa, afternoon tea with Hania, dinner with Blair...and I still didn't manage to eat/drink/sleep enough before the run.

Expected this to be short because:
a) Henley Beach is flat
b) it's a 1:7500 map
but really didn't expect to actually spend longer driving there than I did out running! To leave out 5 controls it should have been obvious from the very start that they would be the easternmost 5. And it would have been best to get 35 immediately north of the start as an out & back but I didn't work that out until I'd gone east, so doubled back for it, running maybe 2 extra blocks, but otherwise route was pretty much a given. Felt better than other nights when trying to run hard, probably because there were no hills (actually no contours on the map, 'cos it doesn't go as far as the beach dunes) but I would like to be quite a bit faster.

Not too bad - I think I must have got the protein=recovery bit right last night - although couldn't stride out quite as well as I would have liked, thanks to hamstring tightness.

Numerous people out running around Colonel Light Gardens this morning. Wonder what their New Year's resolution was? :)

Neck and shoulders (not to mention wrists and particularly gear-changing thumbs) get so uncomfortably tight from bike riding. Not sure that said bike is ergonomic...

Not really necessary but I came along to be sociable :) Headed back from Long Gully, had to do a lap of the shed to make it up to 30 min. Sampled the first blackberries of the season afterwards!

Up Randell's to the BP was a bit of a slog but I got there in 32. Tried to maintain pace on the way down Gloucester, hoping quads won't pay for it tomorrow - and managed 29:30 - nice.

There was still enough daylight left to carry out the ride I had too much inertia to do last night. Took it easy on a beautiful calm 'autumn' evening - I feel the same way about this valley as Vanessa does about her hills.

Tyson took Troy and Simon and me on a couple of new streets and tracks and hills around Eden Hills (we passed opinions on a variety of architectural styles). He didn't look like a man who had run 20km yesterday!
Bridget showed us her puncture wound. Good thing she didn't deflate.

I talked Tyson and Zara into running the bottom half of Summit to Sea - the 18.5km from Hawthorndene to Brighton which still has 300m of climb - and we all ran to the start from our respective houses. Halfway up Randell's a dog which wasn't behind a nice big fence got very vocal at me but it responded to being told to get away (reckon I have met this kelpie before, now I think of it). Reached the start (7.5km, 270m climb, 48 min) while Terry was doing the briefing. As people started I stopped to let him know what George was up to, and suddenly everyone was off in the distance. Took me 10 min to catch up to Tyson, and never saw Zara at all.

Enjoyed the singletrack through Bellevue Heights, waited for Tyson at South Rd (60 min from Hawthorndene) but he was only a couple min behind me, then my lack of long runs caught up with me, as did Tyson again while I struggled up O'Halloran Hill, dreaming, I'm ashamed to say, of nice cold Coke at the top courtesy of George's* refreshment ute (half mine) even though I hate Coke! All downhill from there, Tyson caught me again going down the steps at Seacliff and we ran the last 2km on the beach together. Without company I probably would have given up and walked...

*apparently as people came up the hill to him they all said "You don't have a broken leg this year"!

A pleasant run but I hadn't much leeway in terms of energy so will put a bit more effort into the sleep-and-pasta side of this week before Two Bays (not sure how a 6am flight to Melbourne on Sat fits into that).

C • thanks! 1

After the rainstorm had passed I drove down to Brighton to leave my car there for tomorrow, hopped on the bike and headed north. Half an hour later I was riding past the dunes at West Beach. The smell of wet sand, seaweed and marram grass made me feel like I was somewhere far more remote. Thought I'd better head home from there, so took Military Rd, the footbridge across the Patawalonga, then tried to follow the bike route alongside the (well-flowing) Sturt drain but it kept pointing me in funny directions. At one point I was heading due west past the Old Gum Tree, then I came to a crossroads which had bike symbols in all 4 directions!

Creek channel access appeared to end at Anzac Highway, so I took the old tramway path through Novar Gardens, then across Anzac on Stonehouse, along the current tramline except that at South Rd I must have been on the wrong side of the line to find access to the new overpass, and so had to walk my bike across Main South Rd! From near the pool I just came home East/Winston, satisfied with my exploits.

C • bike bug 2

I was already wet and muddy so I went for a run. It was lovely in the warmish rain and deepening twilight. Hamstring seems to have settled; may have been a strain caused by lugging around too many watering cans last weekend.

More pleasant than I expected this to be. Got home and the man of the house (who is still on holidays) was frying up bacon & eggs in front of an expectant dog, but I had to go to work :(

Zoe suggested a mass start and although we were both getting 15 controls we went very different ways about it; I headed north and she headed south. As usual, the start was in the very east of the map and the route involved crossing a number of ridges. I first saw Zoe at 40, the 6th control for each of us, but then I lost a couple of minutes on 43 which was on a creek bend, in the wrong place and out of sight from the top of the bank, and when I crossed paths with her again she had already got 2 extra controls but I was dubious that her presumed planned route back along Sturt Creek was going to work for her. My planned route to the last couple of controls didn't work either, as from the school through to 31 I headed NE where 2 blocks of open land were shown touching on the diagonal - but I should have read the impassable fence more closely. Going into and backing out of that dead end (with a token effort at climbing the fence) cost at least 3 min and then my revised route collected the last two in an inefficient order, but Zoe's route must have been even less successful than mine.

Stood around chatting to friends instead of warming down and paid for it later, but it's not easy to weigh up the mental health benefits of socialising against the physical benefits of going home and stretching and eating dinner earlier than 10pm!

Attack of the Killer Physio
Hopefully legs will feel better in a couple of days but they don't yet.

Made it as far as the train line with Zara, Tyson & Steve, then headed back. Curious as to why the new hamstring problem is exacerbated by downhills.

C • hamstrings 7

Set out with the intention of hill intervals but hamstrings (why is the left one sore for a change?) frowned unfavourably on the concept so I did a lap of the park and came home. Almost too tired to concentrate on where I was putting my feet, anyway, so would have been sure to roll an ankle if running harder.

Bike-knees (ITB) were uncomfortable in the night (sleeping on the floor under the airconditioner probably didn't help) and so I went for a swim. Had to hurry to keep out of the way of other people in the lane. Rather dizzy and over-chlorinated after.

Knees were tight after riding yesterday so had intended a run last night but by 9pm it was still rather warm and I was more than a little grumpy. Got up at 5 for a short suburban stagger since I was meeting Fern at 7 to go riding.

After a couple of hiccups, Fern met me at the bottom of the Southern Expresway and I gave her a quick tour of the wetlands then we toiled up O'Halloran Hill, coasted down to Reynella interchange and meandered across to Hallett Cove on the rail trail, then along the foreshore through Seacliff & Brighton and back Oaklands/Daws Rd to where George was making us Woddles :)

Tyson joined us for breakfast and took the sweaty cyclists to the beach afterwards. Took me a while to recollect where/when I'd last been swimming in the ocean; Croatia being the answer. The water there/then was a lot warmer than this morning (but I didn't miss the pebbles masquerading as beach sand)!

In hindsight, I should have just gone for a run when I got up at 6. But my plan was for a swim when the pool opened at 9 as it does on a Sunday. So I rode there only to find that George was right, Jan 1st is a public holiday*, and therefore the pool opened at 10. Figured it would be too sunny to swim out in the open by then, so I went for a ride instead around Mitcham and beyond, searching for a cafe which might actually be open on this public holiday, and drawing a blank.

*What is the point of Jan 2nd being a public holiday also then?